History of Science in India and China

Science and Technology in Twentieth Century China and India

This group aims to illuminate core problems in the history of modern science through the lens of the Chinese and Indian cases. A rigorous historical study promises to bring thereby to light how modern science has developed, or been refracted and transformed, in different contexts outside the Western mainstream. The comparative focus on China and India goes beyond more usual East-West comparisons in this research arena.

As such, it may offer insights how modern science has been and is practiced globally under very different conditions than in the Anglo-European context, from the epistemological foundations to the legal framework of science in society. The thematic clusters include public health and biotechnology; big science and the state; agriculture and ecology; and society, social sciences and the state. Nevertheless, the larger aim is to discuss and reconstruct also what these particular cases can tell us about broader questions in the history of science and science studies, that is, what larger methodological and theoretical implications they have for the way in which we conceive/practice the study of modern science itself. This broader methodological/theoretical twist seems to resonate very well with the larger spirit of the IEARN network.

Participants

The following scholars are participating in that focus group (non exhaustive list):